more than just helicopters,” Smith says. “We’ll have a thriving, growing business of different size ranges of the Ascent architecture, which can be the Swiss Army knife of the future. So, if you can imagine, a police department has the drones right next to their armory. The modular Ascent drones allow for different payloads to be quickly attached and the drone deployed to survey, film, provide a mobile speaker to make announcements, drop tear gas—whatever [the police] need. They can also be launched directly from the helicopter as a force multiplier.” Robinson has built its first lot of the drones and


is well into the second, with deliveries to cus- tomers scheduled to have started in the fourth quarter of 2024. Smith says the plan is to build them in the Robinson factory, promoting the UASs as aviation quality based on the Robinson manufacturing facility’s FAA oversight. Currently, engineering and sales take place at Ascent’s Boston, Massachusetts, location. Eventually, all of


Ascent’s activities will occur at Robinson’s head- quarters in Torrance, California, Smith adds. Smith also led Robinson’s partnership with


Rotor Technologies (see “Rotor Technologies: Tackling the Dull, Dirty & Dangerous,” POWER UP magazine, September 2024). Founded by Smith’s fellow MIT alum Hector Xu, Rotor enables Robinson aircraft to be flown remotely for agricul- tural missions, with the goal of eventually making them fully autonomous. “We have a collaboration agreement with Rotor


that I think is unique in that space,” Smith says. “They’re the only ones we’ve signed an agreement with around development of advanced auto- mation. We are very interested in helping them explore how to market and sell their aircraft.” Jen Boyer is a journalist and marketing communicator specializing in aviation. She holds commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and instrument instructor ratings in helicopters and a private rating in airplanes.


Robinson consistently scores well in customer satisfaction surveys but aims to improve in areas such as streamlining warranty service and providing higher-end finishes for aircraft. (VAI/Don Kelsen Photo)


DEC 2024 POWER UP


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